“According to new research by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 73% of British adults have an active relationship with orchestral music, rising to 83% of those aged under 25,” writes Melissa Bradshaw in Tuesday’s (2/18) Rhinegold (U.K.). “Almost half of young people polled (46%) listened to orchestral music on streaming platforms such as Spotify or YouTube – compared with 15% of people over 65—making it the most common way young people are engaging with orchestral music. ‘Technology is playing a huge role in shaping the future of how people engage with orchestral music,’ says James Williams, managing director at the RPO…. ‘At the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, we see it as an essential role to respond to this change.’ … A quarter (25%) of people under 25 [said] they attended a concert from time to time…. More than a third of adults (35%) said they enjoyed listening to orchestral music on the radio, and results showed that … 22% [of people under 25] were learning or have learned to play a musical instrument, compared to the national average of 12%, and one in eight under-25s (12%) considered themselves to have a ‘good knowledge’ of the genre having studied music in some way.”
